Silent Prayer in a noisy world

When I was a child, my mother would ask me that each night before I went to sleep. Perhaps yours did the same.

So the idea of praying as speaking words to God came to me early on. Later I read in the gospel about a time when his disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. “Say this when you pray”, he said, and taught them the Our Father.

When Jesus had finished praying, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, this is what to say: Our Father …” [Luke 11: 1-2]

Reciting set prayers can take you a long way in building your relationship with God. For Catholics, the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, rosaries and novenas are staple parts of the Christian diet. But for many, after years or perhaps decades, a desire for something more grows. The words, the familiar prayers, remain important. But they discover a deeper thirst.

This pattern is familiar from other human relationships. When a new friendship starts, two people want to tell each other all about themselves. They share their life-histories, their likes and dislikes, personal anecdotes and jokes. There’s so much to talk about!

But as the relationship deepens, it often becomes more still, more quiet, at least at times. Think of an old married couple sitting together in a companionable silence.

Although these have sometimes been thought of as reserved for contemplatives, for monks or nuns or priests, in fact they can help anyone grow closer to God. St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, taught many people to pray in these silent ways. Some, from St Francis Xavier to Oscar Romero, have found their lives transformed as a result.

Ignatius called these different ways of prayer “exercises”. He compared them with running and jumping, with the kind of things that you might do on a visit to a gym or a swimming-pool.

These are prayers that have to be tried out, that will improve with practice. No-one gets fit if they only read about physical exercises but never do them. And no-one deepens their relationship with God just by reading about prayer.

You have to actually pray!

That is why I was delighted when CTS approached me to put together a booklet offering a selection of prayer-exercises of this kind. It describes eleven different ways to pray, gives you step-by-step instructions on how to go about them, and invites you to try them for yourself. None of them involve using a lot of words, and so I write too about silence, and how we can all find and use it in a busy, noisy world.

“Saying your prayers”, speaking to God in your own words or those you’ve known since you were a child, will always remain important. But, as in any conversation, listening is just as important as speaking. The prophet Samuel was taught, when he was a boy, to respond to God by saying “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”.

One comment on “Silent Prayer in a noisy world”

I am 76, and alone with my GOD, as all of my age group are. But, my concerns are of a friend of 20+ yrs. She is being neglected by the medically & man staying in her house, he has been aggressive and does not doing a good job taking care of her. She is now so skinny, and smelly. I would like her to stay in her home, with a home health provider. That would really take good care of her, and clean her house. Please pray for her and her situation. As we are many. I would, but the man doesn’t want anyone else there. Even her furniture she had is gone! I can’t sleep thinking and praying for her. But she needs more prayers, I asked the church. But they want me to go legally, I don’t want her to be put in a home, when she has her own. She needs someone who can care for her. Sorry,it took long to write this.